Cuomo Donor In Buffalo Billion/Schools Construction Corruption Case Is A Very Charitable Guy

It’s music to the ears – a beautiful symphony of synchronicity. The
chairman of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s board of directors has
made a gift of $1 million to the institution he loves.

It was a
sort of reverse birthday present: On his 60th birthday, Louis P.
Ciminelli opened his wallet and pulled out a million of his own dollars
as a gift to the orchestra. It was an extraordinarily generous donation
that will push the orchestra closer to its fundraising goal of $30
million.

With his gift,
Ciminelli is helping to ensure that the orchestra can remain financially
secure for decades to come.

The gift was announced last week at the
orchestra’s season-opening gala concert. With it, Ciminelli and the BPO
launched a fundraising effort called the Crescendo Campaign with its $30
million goal.

The campaign’s aim is to secure the orchestra’s
financial future (in part by reaching out to the youth of Western New
York), to fund operational needs and to secure new commitments.
Encouragingly, a silent phase of the campaign has already brought in $17
million. Another big gift is pending; the Tower Family Fund has
promised to give $1 million if the orchestra secures another $1 million
in donations.

This community seems to overflow with generous
people who support its critical social and economic infrastructure. With
his gift, Ciminelli has shown again that he is among those citizens who
go far beyond the extra mile in their devotion to Buffalo.

Federal prosecutor Preet Bharara’s investigation into the Buffalo
Billion is part of a larger probe into other development projects,
including the Buffalo Schools Construction Project, sources close to the
investigation said Friday

The first hint of an investigation by
the Manhattan U.S. Attorney came in the form of subpoenas demanding
information on several large-scale state initiatives, many of them with
close ties to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the SUNY Polytechnic Institute in
Albany.

Sources said the subpoenas went out across the state and
seek documents and records regarding the bidding process on those
projects, as well as any communication between state officials and
private contractors.

...

The Post, in its story, said Bharara’s office is looking at
multimillion-dollar state contracts that led to the construction of
high-tech, drug-development and clean-energy businesses.

“It’s a
comprehensive look at the bidding process,” a source told the Post.
“They’re looking at communications between contractors and state
officials.”

Sources familiar with the investigation told The
Buffalo News that the subpoenas also demand records and documents
connected to the Buffalo Schools Construction Project, an 11-year, $1.3
billion program to renovate 48 city schools.

Even though the
renovations are complete, Buffalo school board members Carl Paladino and
Larry Quinn have criticized the fixed-price contract used on the
project and suggested tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money
remain unaccounted for.

LP Ciminelli, the chief contractor on the
schools project, called the criticism part of a personal vendetta
directed at Louis P. Ciminelli, the company’s chairman and CEO.

Ciminelli,
a major contributor to Cuomo’s political campaigns, is also the general
contractor on SolarCity, a $900 million solar panel factory being built
at South Buffalo’s RiverBend complex. The plant is the centerpiece of
Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion.

Of course it's easy to be so generous when you're on the other end of a $1.3 billion dollar school construction renovation project that's reported to be missing tens of millions of dollars in funds and a rigged bidding process for a $900 million factory that is the centerpiece of Governor Cuomo's Western New York economic redevelopment plan.

Here's part of what Ciminelli wrote in his propaganda piece for Governor Cuomo in June 2014:

It’s time for us to shed the self-doubt and
allow ourselves to dream and to appreciate living in the moment that saw
this community head down the right path. We are at the beginning of
something great and it’s time we embrace it – and thank Gov. Andrew M.
Cuomo for making it happen.
Unlike previous leaders who would blow into town to announce some
pie-in-the-sky initiative, usually around election time, and then leave
to never be seen again (at least not until the next election) Cuomo laid
out a vision and then actually followed through.

The Buffalo
Billion initiative was met with skepticism in some corners. But then the
governor came back to town … again and again and again. He remained
committed to creating a new, sustainable economy in Buffalo. And now
it’s happening.

Buffalo is now on the cusp of becoming a national
leader in several emerging market sectors. From the Medical Innovation
and Commercialization Hub at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, to the
IT Innovation and Commercialization Hub anchored by IBM to the High-Tech
Innovation and Commercialization Hub at RiverBend, this is real
economic development that many business leaders and economic development
professionals long hoped for but seemed to happen only in other places.

I
can attest as I travel across the state and nation, people are taking
notice of what Cuomo is doing. Maybe that’s why companies not only on
the other side of the country but on the other side of the globe now
want to be in Buffalo.

Perhaps the easiest way to judge progress
is to count the number of cranes. Right now, there are three large tower
cranes in Buffalo working day and night on projects. There could be two
more by year’s end. To those outside construction, that might not mean
much, but trust me, it’s a big deal.

So, fellow Buffalonians,
allow yourselves to get a little excited. Things are happening. Cuomo’s
Buffalo Billion is delivering and there is more to come.

There's more to come, all right.

With the feds looking into Ciminelli for both the Buffalo Billion project and the Buffalo Schools Construction project, perhaps we'll start to understand just how all the money and contracts got doled out, what was given in return, and, if some of the cash is proven to be missing as is alleged in the Buffalo Schools Contruction Project, just where it went.